The Battle For Lift Global Ventures, Continued
The final date for proxy voting for both the Lift Global Ventures adjourned AGM and the EGM is 11.30am February 6th. The big day is February 10th, where I as CEO of the company will attend the physical meetings at from 11.30am in the City. It is nearly 4 years since Lift listed on Aquis, and it has been hard work. The company was originally founded by myself as a fintech SPAC, so in theory there should have been a deal using the £2m raised for a reverse takeover, or perhaps a series of acquisitions. Ideally, the former. Conscious of the significant and ridiculous costs of running a listed company – lawyers, accountants, exchange fees, auditors, Miriad, my PR company was acquired in September 2022, and with well over £1m revenues since then coming in, shareholders of which I am the second largest, remained undiluted for 3 years..
Now the other three board members are supporting a significant dilution in the form of a £1m raise and up to £500,000 of headroom, all of this versus a £400,000 market cap. To my mind anyone voting for this would be a turkey voting for Christmas. The proposed new AI investment strategy for which this dilution is proposed may or may not be a success. But it could take another 3 years to get over the line. Most shareholders do not have the patience for this. They would prefer a reverse takeover deal as soon as possible, something which should have happened a year or two or more ago. It is also something that could have as several deals were tabled by third parties. But to my mind my fellow directors were more concerned in keeping control of a listed vehicle, than achieving a result for shareholders. This is understandable, it is rampant across the stock market. But it explains the current conflict. Indeed, we have a conflict based not only on this, but the other directors being conflicted between their interests and those of the shareholders.
Indeed, it is all about the shareholders as far as I am concerned. I know many of them personally, and have already proxy voted with them: against all the points in the reconvened AGM, against the dilution, and in favour of the EGM to remove the other three directors. Should the Shareholders Action Group win on February 10th it should be the case that Lift will be looking for a deal as a priority. This is something which is right on the zeitgeist in a stock market hungry for shells, and where the hassle of getting listed grows by the day. As an extra point I note and thank a certain rather high profile blogger for his support for the shareholder cause at Lift. And yes, I am a latter day Oscar Wilde in terms of the prose.
Hydrogen Utopia
The news keeps on ratcheting up for Hydrogen Utopia (HUI) in terms of key developments in the ultra-rich country of Saudi Arabia, and as far as progress for its windfall gain in terms of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel market (SAF). HUI’s SAF project is to benefit from the mandating of use of SAF. There is a huge premium on SAF as there is and will be a world shortage. HUI is entering this market with a bang in the best place in the world to operate with huge government support – easy funding – easy permitting having the trillion dollar Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund as a partner. All this in a country where project developers work by bringing the projects together and taking a 20% free carry which will be worth up to $16 million per year per installation. This is one that every other country in MENA will be wanting to produce SAF, off the back of international mandating.
HUI could easily have more than 10 plants under construction on different locations operating by 2029 and in the meantime getting management fees from each project of over $1 million per year – the technologies are all proven and they are all the beginning of the world cleaning up its waste plastic problem – by reusing the molecules into a product with a huge premium projected for 20 years at least.
None of all of these goodies are factored into the HUI market cap of £12m, or that the first commercialisation announcement could now come at any time in H1 2026. By the way, let us see whether Howard White, Chairman of HUI, becomes a director of Lift Global Ventures, after the February 10th AGM / EGM as is proposed by the requisitioners.
This Week’s Small Cap Risers
One of the gripes that we may have about the London market is that when small cap companies have good news the market tends to act non-plussed, or even just ignore it. However, this was not the case as far as Sancus Lending (LEND). Here we saw the shares quadruple at one point as it was revealed that the alternative financial services provider has nearly doubled its lending book, and is looking for revenues to rise nearly a third for 2025. Certainly, after this week’s news the company has put itself on the map.
There was a near 2x rally this week for Georgina Energy (GEX), a company which has been in the sights of the shorting defamation squad since it came to market. They must have been rather upset this week by the rocketing share price, which came off the back of the helium and hydrogen explorer announcing a $25 million structured offtake funding facility to finance the drilling of the Hussar-2 well. Quite how the bears thought they could spin this into a negative is beyond belief, but they had a go anyway. It did not work.
Although Empyrean Energy (EME) has a history of being a bridesmaid rather than a bride, as well as its daily chart being riddled with one day wonder share price rallies. However, this week the shares did manage to hold onto the bulk of the gains off the back of news that the company has settled its Mako gas field dispute. The shares were up 138% on the week, although they remain stubbornly within the recent 0.04p to 0.14p range in place since the beginning of last year.
These days explorer / developers are so hot that even marginal news can set the share price soaring in a way that would not have happened even a few months ago. This helped out IMC Exploration (IMC). The trigger for a 100% share price rise on the week was news of the renewal of an Armenian mining license, albeit that doing so for 9 years is not quite as marginal perhaps as I hinted at the beginning of this paragraph.
Shares of Amigo (AMGO) are already up 2x so far in 2026, as the market has certainly warmed to the way the company has pivoted to gold and rare earths in Africa. The 95% rise on the week came in the wake of the company giving notice of its AGM in March. The market cap of AMGO is now back up to £17m.
A well received Zaks Traders Café interview off the back of a rare earths option in Namibia did the trick the previous week for Kendrick Resources (KEN). The momentum was maintained in the wake of news of director buying this week, leaving the shares up 66% this week. It is evident that finally all the Colin Bird vehicles are finally having their time in the sun.
Disclaimer & Declaration of Interest:
The information, investment views, and recommendations in this Zaks Traders Cafe interview are provided for general information purposes only. Nothing in this interview should be construed as a promotion or solicitation to buy or sell any financial product relating to any companies under discussion or referred to or to engage in or refrain from doing so or engage in any other transaction. Any opinions or comments are made to the best of the knowledge and belief of the commentator but no responsibility is accepted for actions based on such opinions or comments. The commentators may or may not hold investments in the companies under discussion.
